Ghana Seeks $1 Billion for Renewable-Energy Resources

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Ghana is seeking investment of as
much as $1 billion to develop renewable-energy resources over
the next eight years, according to the Energy Ministry.

“Policies are in place to exploit the country’s energy
potential in solar, biomass, wind, as well as mini-hydro,” Seth
Mahu, deputy director at the ministry, said in an interview in
the capital, Accra, on Nov. 2. “We are looking at both Ghanaian
and non-Ghanaian private-sector operators partnering government
to develop these resources.”

Ghana, which has the second-biggest economy in West Africa,
has experienced more than three months of electricity cuts after
a natural-gas pipeline off the coast of Togo was damaged by a
ship. The pipe supplies gas for power from Nigeria to Benin,
Togo and Ghana and the outage is expected to continue until
December, according to the West African Gas Pipeline Co.

Growth in the $39 billion economy 2013 is forecast to slow
to 7.8 percent from 8.2 percent this year, according to the
International Monetary Fund.

The renewable-energy investments will add 500 megawatts of
power to the nation’s capacity and help expand electricity
provision to all parts of the country, “especially in isolated
areas,” said Mahu.

Ghana’s current 2,443-megawatt capacity reaches 72 percent
of the population, according to figures from the ministry. The
damage to the gas pipeline curbed power supplies by about 300
megawatts, Energy Minister Joe Oteng-Adjei said in September.

Solar Panels

President John Dramani Mahama, who is vying to win a second
term in office for his ruling National Democratic Congress party
in an election next month, pledged electricity for the whole
country by 2016. Both Mahama and his main opponent, Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party, promised to boost production to
5,000 megawatts.

Ghana has almost 10,000 solar-panel installations in
communities that don’t have access to the national power grid,
Edward Bawa, a spokesman for the ministry, said yesterday.

“We are doing a test run of wind-energy installations in
the Central region,” he said, referring to the southern area
that borders the capital city region.

A hydroelectric plant on a dam at Bui, in the central-west
Brong Ahafo region, is expected to add 400 megawatts of power in
the first quarter of 2013, said Mahu. Ghana derives 1,180
megawatts from two hydro plants on the Volta River in eastern
Ghana, including Akosombo, which was opened in 1965 by the
country’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah.

Ghana is developing its own natural-gas reserves and will
supply 150 million standard cubic feet each day for thermal
power generation, Mahu said.

“This will provide cheaper fuel for energy generation from
December,” George Sipa Yankey, head of the Ghana National Gas
Co., said.